WOTM: Marie Curie

Explorer of Science, Explorer of The Future: Marie Curie

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseveranceand above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” - Marie Curie

Marie Curie devoted and dedicated her life to exploring the arts of science, having grew an immense passion and belief for the field. She was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize, - twice for that matter! (pun intended). Also the only person to win multiple Nobel Prizes in sciences and the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. Against all odds, she overcame gender discrimination, poverty and hardship to achieve great success as a scientist and female figure. Aren’t you curie-ous about this lady and how she managed to achieve such great success? The writers at Sparks certainly are. Therefore, here it is; This issues Woman of The Month and our hero, Marie Curie.

Curie was born on the 7th of November 1867 to a poor family in Warsaw, Poland. On both her paternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings. Being the youngest out of 5 children, her parents struggled to care for and educate all of them. 

At the young age of 10, Curie was ripped from her mother’s arms when she died of Tuberculosis, leaving her children to fend for themselves. After her mother’s death, Curie was enrolled in the Boarding School of J. Sikorska and attended a gymnasium for girls after. Because of her hard work and love for learning, Curie graduated at the age of 15 with a gold medal. She was always anxious and excited to begin learning new things, never refusing to explore more of a certain topic. “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done”.

Later on, Curie was denied enrolment in one of the top learning centres as they would not take in girls and only boys. This only encouraged her and her sister to continue their studies in an informal university, the Flying University. Due to major financial issues, Curie and her sister came up with a system that would help them earn money in order to stay in school. Curie made an agreement with her sister that she would stop studying to work in order to give her sister financial assistance in exchange for similar assistance two years after. 

After her hardship in order to sustain her family and their education, Curie finally began to follow and pursue her dreams. She was helped by her father, who was able to secure a more lucrative position again. All that time she continued to educate herself, reading books, exchanging letters, and being tutored herself. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less”. Marie Curie was not one to ever give up, she was constantly learning how to master and understand certain theories and when she did, she would move on to another. She is truly an inspiration to all women out there looking to succeed.

Just shortly after beginning her scientific career in Paris, Marie began to discover new elements and theories of science. Influenced by the many important discoveries at the time, Marie decided to look branch out into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis. She used an innovative technique to investigate samples and not long after, she came up with a hypothesis that was an important step in disproving the ancient assumption that atoms were indivisible. 

After this discovery, Marie Curie went on to discovering new theories and inventions. Although it was difficult, she managed to overcome false obstacles and minor disruptions. She lived her life to learn more, to be more, to have more, to do more and to live more. That was the spirit of Marie Curie: always curious, always interested. She was a female physicist living in a man’s world. “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas”.